HOA's aren't better deals but when you are given the choice of by this unit for 170K or move in 3 months (while many of the other complexes in the city are doing the same thing) then you are beginning to be coerced depending upon your finacial situation. Also there is no give and take, the property isn't any better than it was as an apt. but now there are extra restrictions. If the mortgage is about the same and all the other decent apts. in town are priced at twice what you have been able to afford, then you are certainly being forced. You could always live in a rat hole or on the street, but is that much of a choice, really?
Your argument is interesting, but not terribly convincing.
It is true that the free market doesn't always mean that you can have everything you want at any time. Such is life. That doesn't mean that you were "forced" at all.
It's leftist logic.
The owner sets the price.